Well, I've decided to start a PJ. Never having done a PJ...I figured...hey why not?!

Cast of Characters:

Bride-to-be (again): That would be me. Groom-to-be (again): That would be Steve.

There won't be a "bridal" party since we are not really redoing our wedding (although I've been calling this VR thing our "rewedding"); but I will introduce our two fur-babies: Kaht & Muffy.

Kaht is our 19-year-old cat that was actually a stray my folks rescued soon after I got married. Kaht was a kitten then and was being abused by the neighbors, so my mom fell in love with him and took him in. When they passed away - I inherited him and he has been my baby boy ever since. His name actually stands for King Alexander Hyper Troublemaker or Kaht for short. And yes, it is pronounced "cat".

Muffy is our 6-year-old border collie mix who we rescued from the animal shelter. She's our baby girl who is such a little devil it's not even funny! But we love her anyway.

How we met:

Steve & I met on September 14, 1990 in a bar (of all places). He knew the night we met that we were going to be married. He told me after we had gotten engaged that as we were dancing to "Unchained Melody" he just knew and was wondering how he was going to tell his mom that he was getting married! Most of our dating was spent on the phone because he worked nights (and I worked days); we did a lot of talking and got to really know each other through our conversations.

Our Original Engagement:

Now this is a funny story (at least we think it is)! It was Thanksgiving 1990 and we had spent part of the day with his family and part of the day with my family. His friends asked us to come over too that day so on our way there, Steve said (as we were in the car at a stop light) "we're getting married." I said "yeah sure." Thinking to myself 'yeah I can see being married to him.' So we get to his friends' house and we're chatting and Steve says to his friend, "Michelle & I are getting married." And I kind of just stared at him. His friend said, "did you ask her yet?" Steve turns to me and said, "you said yes in the car!" and without really thinking I said, "well, yeah but I didn't realize that was the proposal!" we all laughed and toasted to our 'engagement'.

About 3 weeks later (after he had spoken to my dad and got my dad's blessing) we purchased our rings. While at the jewelry store, Steve gets down on one knee and says, "Will you marry me?" And as everyone watched, I said, "yes of course." The whole store erupted in clapping (it was a Friday night and it was packed!)

And that brings us to the Present:
We've had some ups and downs and lots of health issues but we've managed to stay together through it all for nearly 20 years. We still feel lucky to have each other and love each other more every day. This past July Steve had to have his leg amputated (above the knee) due to a blood clot (and vascular disease). The past two years have been h*ll with him having to have vascular surgeries nearly every 90 days - I'm NOT kidding!

Why do a Vow Renewal?

It was Steve's idea (though he won't admit to it now - he says it was all my idea). He brought it up this past April on our anniversary and said "does Disney do vow renewals?" I told him I'm sure they did since they do weddings. And when he said find out - that was all I needed to know and find out (and still finding out) I am!

What type of VR?

We'll be at the WP on April 13, 2011 (which is our actual anniversary). We chose Noon (and got it too) since that is closest to our actual time of when we got married (which was 11:15). But this time we're not doing the big white dress thing - did that for our original wedding. This time he wants something casual (like Hawaiian shirts). I'm leaning towards a nice (long) ivory dress for me and an ivory Hawaiian shirt for him.

Our colors?

Red & White/Ivory. Red & White was our original colors.

Ok I'll end for now and will look for some photos of our original wedding and will also add more regarding our VR.

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What a great story!!!
Welcome and congratulations!!!
I am a VR bride too and my VR is at the Swan on 4th May 2011 with cocktails and dinner afterwards at the GF.
Looking forward to following your plans!!

So after contacting DFTW last May they "pencilled" us in for April 13, 2011. In August we finally got confirmation that we got our day and the time we wanted! So our VR will be at the WP on April 13, 2011, at noon. Yeah!

First things first...

I quickly emailed Rev. Jack Day and received an email back from him saying that he's available for our day. Another Yeah! I checked out all the other ones on the list and of course looked here on the DIS, and Rev. Jack was the one that I got the best feeling about.

Then I started the guest list. Now planning an Escape (re-)Wedding we're only allowed 20 people (which includes us) and guess what? Yep! We were WAY over our limit. So I started to pare down and cut people out. Got us down to 16! Then I sent "Save the Dates" to get an idea if they would come. Two are on the fence still, three said they can't, and two never replied (so I'm taking that as a 'no we ain't coming'). So the guest list is still being worked on! I'll add a picture of our "Save the Date" invites as soon as I can.

...and we even made a few decisions too. Like the photo package - we're going with the Disney package and will upgrade to Cinderella package "C". We told Tanis (our consultant) that photos are really important to us. Our "photographer" at our original wedding screwed up our pictures to the point that we ended up going to a professional photographer about 6 months later so that we could get decent pictures.

Did I mention that the photographer at our wedding was DH's brother? He told us he'd do the photos as a gift to us. We were so upset when we got the pictures! 12 rolls of 36 shots each and I managed to salvage about a dozen pictures!! The majority were blurry. Hence why my BIL is not one of my favorite people!

I'm thinking of the floral design for decorating the WP. I really do not want to spend $900 - $2200 (which is what the package stated). I can't see spending that type of money for decorations. I'm seriously thinking about doing my own.

Just got confirmation that Beaute Speciale will be doing my hair/makeup for our VR. Yeah!!

It's been a while since I've even thought about our VR. So much going on between work and home! Steve got his prosthetic leg on Monday. Yeah! He's learning how to put it on and take it off and of course walking with it.

On December 2nd we talk to Rosie regarding our floral. Looking forward to that, still not sure what we want (other than the bouquet - definitely want the cascade one).

Other than that I'm still looking for a dress of some sort. I'm planning on going to NYC in early December for a "girls' weekend" and I'll be heading to Macy's there to see Santa and look at dresses. I can't wait! NYC at Christmas is my favorite place (2nd only to Disney!).

Great to see a new installment and good to hear Steve is doing well with his new leg.
You really cannot go wrong with Beaute Speciale!!
Good luck withe the floral consulataion - I am having a cascade bouquet too. I think they are so pretty and dramatic!!!
Have fun looking for a dress!!
Looking forward to hearing more!!

With all the holidays and such I haven't had time to update here, however, I have been busy with the "rewedding" plans.

We spoke to Rosie regarding our florals - she is such a sweetie! Steve did most of the talking about my bouquet. When he was in High School he worked in a florist and has a great eye for arranging. He designed my bouquet for our original wedding (a cascading rose bouquet - with ALL red roses). This time we're doing a cascading rose bouquet too, however, to be a little different, we'll have red & white roses (larger ones and smaller ones). I can't wait to see it!

Depending on how many will come to the rewedding I may call Rosie about Hawaiian Leis. It will be a gift from us to each guest; and Rosie said they cost about $5 each. Or I may go to Party City and buy the fake ones for a$1.99 each! We'll see.

I've also made a reservation for dinner the night of our rewedding. I booked it for 14 and booked it at Wilderness Lodge. We wanted something not fancy with good food. Our other idea is Trail's End - buffet (all you can eat) and it's definitely not fancy. But at least I have a ressie for now.

I've also started working on a newsletter of sorts that I will include in our invites. Which I hope to send out next month. I don't much like the FB website but I want our guests to be able to start planning their trip.

This might be harder than I first thought. I figured since the holidays were now over, some local stores might have long dresses that I could find suitable (and not too expensive) for our VR.

I did find one (out of the dozen or so I tried on). However, it is a bit too low cut for my taste, but I figured I'd live with that; but then I saw some problems with the dress - in several places the beads were coming off (and were already off) making the pattern look really bad. It was a beautiful dress and fit really well - wouldn't have needed any alterations at all! I was disappointed. I thought about getting it and then getting it fixed, but I just could not bring myself to spend $120 on a dress that I needed to get fixed and I didn't have a guarantee that I would be able to fix it.

But at least now I have an idea of what I am looking for! I think.

The dress was a champagne color with a deep v-neck and had beads all over the dress from top all the way to the bottom of the dress and it was a long dress (no train). And it was definitely something I could wear again (if I went to a wedding or dance or something like that). I did take a picture of it and as soon as I download it I will post.

I've also been looking at shoes. I found one pair I really love - but they are red. So I'm thinking I really need to get a dress before buying those shoes. So my goal is to purchase a dress next weekend. I hope!

I'm in the midst of printing out our invites and will include a newsletter of sorts so that our guests can start to make plans on where to stay (if they hadn't already). Those will hopefully go out this week.

Now the drama part...

And then DH & I get a message from his step-mother who now informs us that she "just can't make it" but hopes that we and our "friends" have a wonderful time. We think this is coming because she's ticked that DH got his father a cell phone so they can keep in touch without her listening in on their conversations. Yes, every time we have called them on their house phone and DH & his dad are talking she picks up the extension and will listen in. You can hear it when it's been picked up and you can hear her breathing on the other end too. Plus, she will just pipe in and say something while they are talking! And no they are not talking about her; but it's a control thing with her.

DH's father has also said several times "invite your brothers" to our VR. That's a touchy subject, since DH & his brothers don't even speak not that we haven't tried. DH's older brother has wanted to be an only child since before DH was born, and DH's younger brother is ... how do I say this nicely... he's nothing but a user. We had been close with the younger brother but after he nearly cost me my job, stole the money from selling my car, and a bunch of other things - we don't speak much. Not to mention he's moved some where and didn't even leave a forwarding address with us. He's told his father and step-mother that if we want to know where he is we can "look him up". Really? Unfortunate for him we do not have the desire to do that!

DH called and spoke to his older brother about 2 weeks ago and told me he really doesn't have anything in common with his older brother anymore.

So now I'm thinking, if DH's dad finds out that the other two "boys" aren't coming he might not come either. It wouldn't bother me if he didn't come (we've been married 20 years almost and I've yet to meet the man) but I know it will bother DH; especially since his father didn't come to our wedding 20 years ago - thanks to his little brother calling and telling him not to come because he'll just make everyone uncomfortable.

Yep - been married to DH for almost 20 years and have never met my father-in-law (or his wife, DH's step-mother). They used to drive up passed our house to get to DH's older brother's house, but never bothered to stop in to see us. The family is dysfunctional to say the least! So this VR should be quite interesting when it comes to the guests. I told DH that if his dad doesn't come and gives some lame excuse as to why he can't come, I will talk to him and give him a piece of my mind. Sometimes it's good being an only child with no family left!

We've already been told by DH's aunt & uncle that they probably won't be able to make it (even though at first they said they would come); but we can understand if they can't make it - both are in their 80s and they have health issues. DH's dad and step-mother are also in their 80s but don't have nearly the same amount of health issues (although if you talk to step-mother for a while she'll tell you some stories that will make you wonder how she's still alive!) This should really get interesting once the invites go out!

I am sorry the dress you liked had some beading missing!!
Keep looking - the perfect 'one' is out there somewhere.
Sorry to hear about the family dramas. It is always the happy occasions (weddings, Vrs etc) which seem to start the bickering. It seems similar in most families. Keep smiling sweetie!!